“Australian tourism is open for business and we need to ensure whatever existing damage to our industry can now be minimised.

“There will be a backlog to clear, in particular from our international markets. Interestingly, we have become very good at clearing backlogs given recent issues such as the volcanic ash cloud and should see normal service start to resume within the next 24 hours,” he said.

Tourism Australia is ensuring the ‘open for business’ message is communicated widely through all its external channels, including Australia.com and Facebook (See Australia) as well as its overseas offices and global network of Aussie Specialist travel agents.

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Tourism Australia has 25,000 Aussie Specialist travel agents in 69 countries and almost two million fans on Facebook – the largest destination fan page in the world.

City.Mobi

Also in Australia today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Brisbane.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.